The Bratva’s Bounty (Volkov Bratva #3)

31. Nicole

Chapter 31

Nicole

Okay, sounds in the middle of the night shouldn't be too odd out here in the wilderness, especially in the middle of the night. But sometimes…

Creeeeeeak…

I did not like the way my heart clenched with fear at the sound of wood giving under some weight. Sitting up in the bed, I reached over to the slumbering giant beside me and shook him. "Lev!" I shouted at him in a hushed whisper.

Creeeak… Creak… Creee…

The sinking feeling in my gut was validated when Lev instantly shot up in bed and grabbed his gun at light speed. Jumping out of bed, he moved to the door, pressing his back flat against the wall next to it. "Nicole, go hide," he commanded me in a sturdy voice, nodding toward the closet. "There's a saferoom in the closet. Code is six, six, eight, five, seven, zero."

Scrunching my face up into a scowl, I glared at him defiantly as I got out of bed and reached under the mattress, pulling out some small bombs. "I can help." Well, I might do a lot more damage than anything, but it was better than him handling whatever was out there on his own .

Too bad Lev wasn't gonna have any of it. "No. Either you behave and hide, or I will knock your ass out and shove it in that closet." He set my two options out in the open with an unmoving expression. "I am not having you risk your life when you don't have to."

My scowl deepened with displeasure as I gripped the handful of bombs tightly. "No, we are in this together. That means I fight with you, not go run and hide while you take care of our issues." Not the wisest time to start an argument, but like hell was I gonna let him boss me around like that.

I barely caught the sight of his chest rising with his deep breath in the dimly lit room. "Nicole. I swear to God, I will fucking knock your ass out in the next ten seconds if I don't see you moving." And he was probably smart for not engaging my stubborn ass.

Creak. Creak. Creak. Creak. Creak.

"Nicole!" Lev barked at me in a hushed voice, his glaring eyes burning holes toward the closet.

Biting my tongue, I huffed and retreated to the closet without any fight. Lev needed to have his full focus on whatever was beyond that door, and the more I thought about it, the more logic sunk into me.

Whatever made the noise that crept closer and closer to us would be right on the other side of the bedroom door in a matter of seconds. So, we were basically cornered. Throwing a bomb in an open street or an alleyway was one thing, but throwing a bomb in this situation was a bad story waiting to be written to life. The chances of Lev and I being caught in the blast were pretty high. I wasn't willing to risk it like I did the other day with the goons my parents sent after us.

Making my way to the back of the closet, I quickly located the keypad after feeling around for a quick second. Punching the numbers in the dark was a bitch, though. I was about to slam my fist against the wall when the thing beeped at me in error for the fourth time I fucked up the code. Thankfully, the fifth time was the charm.

Standing at the threshold of the saferoom, I turned my head back to look at the parted closet door, debating for a split second if I should try to help Lev. Inching in the direction of the closet's door, my feet threatened to carry my body back out until I forced myself into the metal room and slammed the door shut behind me.

The room wasn't huge, but it was roomy enough. Inside the metal room were boxes of canned food, M.R.E.s, boxes of bullets, guns, knives, radios, batteries, an old-ish computer system, and a wall of screens with active video around the cabin.

My frantic eyes carefully scanned the screens, stopping at the one that showed the hallway. "Oh no."

I could feel a chill settle in my paling face when I saw the number of armed men lining the hallway and crowding around our bedroom door. It was hard to make out the exact number of men with the poor lighting and grainy feed, but I counted at least ten.

I have to help Lev.

The shittiest girlfriend in the world title would be waiting for me if I didn't try to help Lev out of this jam after seeing what he was up against. But what could I do? All my drones and other materials were packed away and sitting pretty in boxes by the front door, and the only bombs I had on me were too dangerous to set off inside the cabin.

Shit, shit, shit. Come on, Nicole, think, think!

Pacing around, I tapped my fingernail against my teeth. Then, I made the mistake of peeking at the screen again, making my panic rise a little when I saw how much more crowded the hallway became.

I needed to calm down. I wouldn't be any help if my thoughts raced out of my control.

Fucking hell, there are so many men. There's no way Lev stands a chance against all of them, not with—ah hah!

It was right in front of me, and I was too stupid not to take any kind of notice. I wanted to slap myself in the face for being so blind in my frantic state.

Rushing over to the table and wall of weapons, I grabbed the assault rifle and disengaged the magazine, grumbling to myself when I saw it to be empty. "Why the hell wouldn't you have a ready weapon," I complained to no one in particular as I quickly loaded it .

Pulling a handgun off the rack, I quickly checked and loaded that as well before grabbing a knife and exiting the safe room. Of course, Lev wasn't too happy to see me again, which I didn't blame him for.

Before he could scold me, I held a finger at him to wait. "I'm not staying, promise. I just wanted to give you some stuff to even the odds." I set all the items on the ground and slid them over to him. "There's at least fifteen out there on the other side, all armed like some Call of Duty game. I don't know how much help the extra weaponry will be to you, but it's better than the single handgun you have."

Taking out a lighter and some of my bombs, I slid those over to him as well. "Don't use them unless you have to or if we're outside."

Then, with one last look and a wary smile, I blew him a kiss. "Be careful. I love you."

At least he managed to smile at me reassuringly, so I was thankful for that. "I love you, zhizn moya ." Picking up the items, he quickly stashed them away on his body and held the rifle. "Now, go. I'll see you in a bit."

Believing him, I went back into hiding and watched the gunfight go down behind the screens until the cameras got taken out by bullets. All I could do after that was sit there and wait with bated breath for Lev to open the door so that I could run into his bloody arms like some fairytale.

I wish I had some way of knowing what went on beyond the heavy metal door. The walls were so thick, and probably soundproofed, that I couldn't hear anything happening on the other side.

It was torture to sit there in a dimly lit metal box that was too silent for its own good. The silence was deafening after what felt like forever—it was only ten minutes (I checked my damn phone). It was so quiet that my worries about how Lev was out there sounded like they were outside my head.

Another stretch of silence trudged on before a clicking sound made my head snap to the door.

The breath I'd sucked in dizzied me when I let it out with my wide grin. Excitement filled my racing heart when the door slid open, and I was about to run up to Lev until…

"No…"

For once, I was at a loss for words because I was too consumed by shock.

This wasn't how it was supposed to turn out.

Lev and I should've been embracing each other and celebrating his bloody victory, not forced away into separate cages after an apparent defeat.

We were supposed to be either on the road home or safe at home, not here at some unknown place located somewhere only the high Heavens knew.

All of this was bullshit!

The fight wasn't fair!

Lev should have won! He would have!

He nearly killed everyone in that damn hallway, and we would have gotten away if it weren't for the flashbang that was thrown his way. He could have gotten away if he'd jumped out the window, but he didn't want to risk leaving me.

That was what he told me when we were stuck in the back of the van together for the ride here.

…It's my fucking fault he got taken down…

"Grah!" My fists slammed against the metal bars of my prison cell with my angry outburst, rattling the rusty things.

Letting out a livid sob, I slumped against the bars and looked at Lev with apologetic eyes. My poor Lev was all beaten and bloody, and he was tied to a chair a few feet from my cage. "I'm so sorry." My cracked whisper barely cut through the air to his dazed self.

Wincing, Lev did his best to smile at me. " Zhizn moya , no. You have nothing to be sorry for. I made the stupid decision to stay. I should have been smarter. I could have jumped out of the window and jumped back into the room after the flashbang went off." He sounded regretful about his split-second decision that put us in this situation.

"Lev, what are we going to do?" I didn't see how we would get out of this.

I was locked up, and Lev was halfway to Death's door from the looks of it. They stripped both of us of our weapons and anything that could be used as a weapon, so we had nothing on but pants and a shirt.

His strong smile wavered for a second before he firmed it back up. "I don't know, but I'll figure something out, promise." If he was worried or anything, then he sure did a good job hiding it. "I' ll get you out of this if it's the last thing I do."

It's not that I didn't appreciate his determination, but given the situation, I didn't want those words. Shaking my head with a frown, I refused to accept his promise. "Don't say that." I couldn't keep my voice strong or loud; I felt too beaten to hold my head up.

"The last thing you are allowed to do is grow old with me after we've raised our little gaggle of children together into wonderfully crazy adults," I told him with a forced chuckle in an attempt to lighten up the mood between us. "We'll get out of this. Together." Somehow.

For a moment, the two of us had some peace.

Too bad it didn't last long.

Our sweet moment ended with the door slamming open, followed by a cruel laugh. "If I had a heart, then I would feel a little bad for cutting your last moments together short, but I've got too much of a bone to pick with both of you to give a shit." Some man's spiteful voice filled the air, turning it rather volatile.

The yellowed fluorescent lights above us flickered on, causing my eyes to ache slightly from the sudden shift. It was only then that I saw the prick who's been a nuisance to the Volkovs and me by proxy. The sight of him brought an immediate frown to my face, causing him to tut at me.

"Now, now, that's not a very becoming face of you to make toward your husband." He chided me with a silent anger in his voice. "I suggest you change it before I do it for you," he stated harshly, glowering at me warningly.

A sudden shout of rage shook the room, along with the rattling of a chair. "She is not your wife!" Lev spat at Igor with the deadliest glare I've ever seen from someone in my life. "And I swear, if you dare lay a finger on her, I will rip you apart, limb by limb, then have rats eat you alive!" The raw wrath in Lev's booming threat shook me to the very core.

If the situation was in our favor or any different, then I would've laughed a little at how Igor's face paled with his widening eyes. Honestly, he looked ready to shit or piss himself with the way his body trembled with terror as he avoided Lev's gaze.

Fucking coward.

Clenching his eyes shut, Igor lashed a shaky hand out at Lev, landing a weak punch to Lev's face. The impact barely twitched Lev's head, and it even got Lev to bark out a m0cking laugh. "Come on, I can't even do shit to you all tied up like this, and you still fear me." Okay, Lev sounded a little too arrogant for his own good right then. "You better count your fucking seconds because you're not going to have days to live. You're dead the moment my brothers storm this place."

If they can find us.

I'd sent an SOS to Angel and the others while I was in the safe room, but there was nothing for them to track us to our current location. So, Lev gambled quite a bit with his threat.

Igor's hands balled up into tight fists as he glared down at Lev. "The only thing they'll find here is your dead body once I'm done with you." He bit back with some conviction. "And the last thing you'll be doing is begging me not to take your life before I do."

Throwing his head back, Lev let out a crazed laugh that had all the men in the room looking at him with wary eyes. "You know, if my sister-in-law didn't kick your ass half-drunk, then I'd be more inclined to take your pathetic threats seriously." Lev's laughter cut off with a winded grunt when Igor planted his fist into Lev's stomach.

Worried, I grabbed at the bars and shook them, frowning at the sight of Lev coughing. "Lev!" I cried out instinctively.

His reassuring gaze and bloody grin flashed at me. "I'm fine," he strained out.

Chewing my bottom lip, I looked over at Igor. "Let him go. It's me that you want, so let him go." I tried to keep my voice from wavering, but the idea of trying to bargain with this disgusting rat made me want to hurl.

"No," he flatly denied me, not even bothering to turn his attention to me as he was too focused on burning holes into Lev with his eyes. "The Volkovs made a mockery of my family, tore it apart, and burned it to the ground. So, I'm not going to take mercy on any of them."

What happened over the next few minutes made my heart crack. "Igor! Stop! Please!" My incessant begging fell on deaf ears.

No matter how much I pleaded with Igor, he wouldn't stop driving his fists and feet into Lev, who had toppled over with the chair. Even if Lev wasn't wincing in pain or reacting appropriately, I knew the blows had to hurt to an extent. Also, surely, he'd suffer the aftermath of it all, and I was worried that he might have an internal bleed with how many hits he took to his unguarded abdomen.

An outcry strained out of Igor when he realized his physical abuse of Lev did nothing but cause Lev to laugh like a complete maniac and spit balls of blood at him.

Yeah, good luck getting him to break.

Although, I may have spoken too soon.

I don't know what shit went on in Igor's head, but his head suddenly darted to me. Next thing I knew, his body appeared next to the cage and the door was thrown open after he unlocked it. My instinctive move to scramble away from him didn't amuse him one bit because once he locked his fat hand around my arm and hauled me out, he slapped me right across the face.

Now, that got a reaction from Lev. " Ty, chert voz'mi, ublyudok !" I don't know what he said, but he was very angry.

Being rather pissed about being physically assaulted, I whipped my scowling face at Igor and lashed back with my own hand, clawing him across the face and digging my fingers into his eyes. While my hand attacked his face, I leaned my body in and bit his hairy forearm that was exposed from his pushed-up sleeves, gagging a little when I felt the hairs in my mouth.

Fuck it, if I threw up, then it sure as hell would be all over him.

No matter how hard he tried to shake me off, he couldn't with how deep I latched onto him. It was only when he slammed me against the cage did I let go because it felt like he broke my fucking spine.

I was then thrown to the ground next to Lev, who was still shouting angrily at Igor in Russian.

Unfortunately, Igor didn't even give me a second of reprieve. His grubby hand fisted the back of my hair, forcing my head back to an unnatural angle that caused pain to stab at my neck. "You fucking bitch, you are going to regret that." He seethed at me, earning a bloody ball of spit to his face from me, which in turn got me a slap from him that split my lip open.

Shoving my face into the rough, concrete ground, he pressed my face into it until I felt the prickly ground scrape my face raw. "You know, I was going to wait until after we left the States to start breaking you, but I guess there would be no harm in starting early."

The feeling of his hand snaking under my shirt and grabbing me instantly kicked my body into survival mode. My legs kicked wildly like a herd animal fending off a predator while my arms clawed and pushed at Igor's heavy body to try and keep him as far from me as possible.

Screams of protest scratched my throat raw until it felt like my vocal cords would snap if I made even the faintest of sounds.

Then, my poor eardrums deafened after a while of hearing myself along with Lev's protestant shouts.

But, no matter how hard I fought… I couldn't stop every person's worst nightmare from coming true.